Sandy Provides a Rare Glimpse Into Barrier Island Processes: The response, resilience, and recovery of the Fire Island National Seashore wilderness area breach
Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network. 2015. Sandy Provides a Rare Glimpse Into Barrier Island Processes: The response, resilience, and recovery of the Fire Island National Seashore wilderness area breach
Fire Island National Seashore encompasses 26 miles of dynamic ocean and bay shoreline, lush dunes, maritime forests, and 17 residential communities. On October 29th of 2012, the largest storm on historical record in the Atlantic basin, Hurricane Sandy, made landfall near the park. The timing happened to coincide with an astronomically high tide as well, and as newscasts and photos that came out over the proceeding days would attest to, damage to property and shorelines was significant. Fire Island was fundamentally altered from Sandy, with waves and storm surge causing extensive beach and dune erosion and creating three breaches through the island. One was closed by natural processes shortly after the storm, another within the Smith Point County Park portion of Fire Island was closed by human intervention, while the third breach in the Otis Pike Wilderness Area of the Seashore remains open with tidal exchange between the Atlantic Ocean and Great South Bay.
- Type
- Resource Brief
- Authors
- Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network
- Date of Issue
- 2015-08
- Units
- FIIS , NCBN
- Keywords
- Atlantic Ocean, barrier island, beach and dune erosion, breaches, FIIS, Fire Island National Seashore, Great South Bay, Hurricane Sandy, NCBN, Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network, Otis Pike Wilderness Area, shoreline, storm surge